I was watching the Discovery Channel a few weeks ago and they showcased people who engage in the sport of Freediving. If you aren’t aware of these people, you might want to educate yourself. Basically, half-crazed men and women dive to several hundred feet of dark, bone-crushing oceanic depths, grab hold of a mechanized underwater elevator at the target point, and ride the buoy back to the surface before their lungs run out of air. If you set a new un-aided, deep-sea diving record during the plunge, you become a national hero. That’s the idea anyway. So it got me thinking: why are some people predisposed to take upon themselves unseen pain and suffering at the chance they might one-up their neighbor? Were hot-dog eating dominatrix Sonja “Black Widow” Thomas to move in across the street, would I stock up on franks and begin working on my double-fisted technique? There’s a time and place for everything, but perhaps the spirit of competition has gone too far.

That last sentence served as a fitting reminder for me every night of the last four months as I endured the pain and suffering of putting together the Web site redesign. Like any good garage project, the intent begins with small ideas and quickly escalates into weights and measures the arms can no longer hold onto. It happens every time I start something and this was no different. Of course, you never realize it until it’s too late to turn back. Like a rented mule, there’s no alternative but to plow on and attack the body of work in small chunks; the thought of encapsulating the entire project in one organic thought is more frightening than dreaming you went to school in your underwear. So as I wrapped up the major guts of the project at the end of February and took time out to watch those Freedivers, I could appreciate the macabre approach to accomplishment they dived for. As much as I hate to spend five seconds under water — let alone five minutes at 40 fathoms — just as many would rather endure a root canal than pour four months of work into a hokey Web site full of knuckleheads like me. We’re all diving for something.

This week is recovery mode. The syllabus calls for early bedtimes and self-medication. Send any complaints to my publicist. The new look and approach to UDPride is something I’m glad we did. It was long overdue and that made it easier to justify, but I’m ecstatic it’s over. I now remember why I put it off for so long. As some of you may or may not know, we don’t have an entire floor of graphic designers and Web developers to pawn the big projects off on.

I’m geeked about the changes though, but for reasons you’ll never see. Because of the changes in how we manage and maintain UDPride, I’ll spend less time screwing around with Mickey Mouse items based on Rube Goldberg blueprints while doing more of what I love: writing. I used to do a lot more of it. I look forward to it, especially outside the fall sports season where I’ve concentrated my time over the last few years.

Let’s get this party started. On tap in this edition of NVO are defections, elections, and a few perceptions.

NEWS: James Cripe and Chris Alvarez have left the building.

VIEWS: Already thin with talented big men, losing two guys 6-8 or taller isn’t exactly a recipe for success. Cripe was not a surprise. I felt like he enjoyed the competition enough to find a good situation outside UD if that’s what it took. With his degree already on the horizon, it was an uphill battle next season for the Loveland native and returning for a fifth year would have been equally tough to earn minutes. Northern Kentucky is a great move for him and he deserves a chance to log 30 minutes a game somewhere. Alvarez was more of a surprise and the Flyers will lose his hustle and energy. Whatever rhyme or reason behind Alvarez’ decision, it was his to make and if he doesn’t see UD in his future, then I don’t see UD as a better place with someone wishing they were elsewhere else.

OVERDUES: Many fans have already lit the cigarette and strapped on the blindfold, but defections are a way of life in D-I athletics. Attrition has been kind to the Flyer program for many years and a few losses mean we’re not as different as we think we are. I find that a good thing. The fact of the matter is all of our big guys are currently a work in progress so there was no franchise to lose. Cripe nor Alvarez were All-Conference talents and their vacancy gives the staff an opportunity to recruit one ala Mark Ashman, Keith Waleskowski, or Sean Finn. All of those blokes were Oliver Purnell recruits, so we’re still waiting for BG’s first All-Conference big man. Perhaps Charles Little or Desmond Adedeji will be the first. Little is on the faster track to be sure.

NEWS: Early exit polls reveal Flyer volleyball coach Tim Horsmon has won the Office of the Expediency in a landslide vote.

VIEWS: It’s remarkable how far the volleyball program has come in just three short years under the guidance of TH. Once a competitive program good enough to win the league but never good enough to do anything in the postseason, it’s now a program working for postseason play as an absolute baseline for measuring success. There’s no better indicator of what the staff thinks of this year’s team than looking at the forthcoming schedule: they are either confident or suffering from necrosis of the skull jelly. Matchups against deadweights like Arizona, Louisville, Louisiana State, Wake Forest, Cincinnati, Indiana, Minnesota, UConn, NC State, Illinois, Pepperdine, and Loyola Marymount will give us a chance to work our second-stringers against their first-stringers by the third game. And that’s just the non-conference schedule.

OVERDUES: Horsmon and his crazies aren’t getting enough credit for the volleyball renaissance they are performing in Big D. No question, they walked into a program with solid tradition – but none if included the letters NCAAs. There’s a chance the 2006 Flyer volleyball team may be the best overall D-I contender in Flyer athletics since the 2000 women’s soccer team made the Sweet-16 — or even perhaps the 1990 men’s basketball team. Expectations are that high. And the recruits just keep on keepin’ on. It seems like every one of them is a nine-sport star in HS, about 6’4”, and can hurdle small land mammals in a pinch. Barhorst gets most of the pub, but the talent around her and those matriculating to UD in forthcoming classes is the most talented it’s ever been.

NEWS: Users are having trouble logging into the new UDPride Message Forums.

VIEWS: I’m getting e-mails, faxes, phone calls, smoke signals, and telepathic hate speech because ‘I can’t get in! Has something changed?’ You mean other than your willingness to read the neon signs? We had sticky topics, follow-ups, follow-ups to the follow-ups, Migration Handbooks in three areas, and a personal plea from yours truly to make sure everyone’s house was in order before the migration. That was oh, 45 days ago. Presumably enough time to double-check those email accounts on record, reset passwords, and identify Displayed Names. Have you tried fetching your password through the auto-password retrieval link at the login page? Drrr. Uhh. Errr. Hmm. Did you key in your Displayed Name like we told ya? Drrr. Uhhh. Errrr. Hmm. Did you type your Displayed name in EXACTLY as it’s publicized in the forums, complete with punctuation and spaces? Drrr. Uhhh. Errr. Hmm.

OVERDUES: So Monday morning I get an email from John Mad Dog Churan telling me he cannot log in to the forums. Priceless.